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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
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https://archive.org/details/jameswilliamlambOOIamb 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH 

1829-1892 

FOR  THIRTY-EIGHT  YEARS 
AN  ACTIVE  MISSIONARY 

BY 

WALTER  R.  LAMBUTH 


Board  of  Missions  M.  E.  Church ,  South, 
Nashville ,  Teyin. 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


Ancestry. 

The  ancestry  of  James  William  Lambuth 
was  missionary.  His  grandfather,  William 
Lambuth,  was  a  member  of  the  Baltimore 
Conference,  ordained  deacon  by  Bishop  Coke 
and  elder  by  Bishop'  Asbury.  He  was  sent  as 
a  missionary  to1  the  wilds  of  Tennessee  in 
1800,  and  appointed  to  Cumberland  Circuit, 
which  embraced  portions  of  the  States  of 
Tennessee  and  Virginia.  In  those  early  days 
Indians  and  outlaws  were  about  the  only  in¬ 
habitants  of  the  primeval  forests,  which 
stretched  for  hundreds  of  miles  between  the 
settlements  of  the  hardy  pioneers.  It  was  a 
plunge  into  an  unexplored  and  trackless  wil¬ 
derness  ;  but  with  a  courage  born  of  invincible 
faith  he  began  traveling  his  new  circuit,  and 
toiled  on,  enduring  many  hardships,  until  he 
rested  from  his  labors  in  1837,  leaving  behind 
him  a  good  name  and  a  spotless  record. 


4 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


John  Russell,  son  of  William  Lambuth,  was 
born  in  1801.  Converted  at  the  age  of  four¬ 
teen,  he  immediately  set  about  his  life  work  as 
a  soul  winner.1  Taking  his  young  companions 
aside  into-  a  grove  near  the  camp  ground 
(where  he  had  just  been  converted),  he  poured 
forth  his  soul  in  their  behalf,  and  was  instru¬ 
mental  in  leading  a  number  of  them  to  Christ. 

He  was  licensed  to  preach  at  sixteen,  and  in 
1821  joined  the  Kentucky  Conference.  Vol¬ 
unteering  for  missionary  work  among  the 
Creoles  and  Indians  of  Louisiana,  he  immedi¬ 
ately  started  south  in  company  with  Benja¬ 
min  Drake,  who  also  had  been  transferred  to 
the  Mississippi  Conference. 

Provided  with  a  Methodist  preacher’s  out¬ 
fit — horse,  saddlebags,  pocket  Bible,  hymn 
book,  and  Discipline — and  fired  with  holy  zeal, 
the  hearts  of  the  young  preachers  beat  high 
with  hope  as  they  turned  their  faces  toward 
the  Sunny  South.  On  their  way  through 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  they  were  joined  by  Bishop 
George.  The  three  pushed  on  day  after  day, 
following  the  pioneer's  trail  under  arching 
pines,  through  bogs  and  swamps  and  turbid 
streams. 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


5 


A  Traveling  Theological  Class. 

The  good  Bishop  expounded  the  Scriptures 
as  they  rode  along,  outlined  the  doctrines  of 
the  Church,  put  and  answered  questions,  and 
gave  out  texts  from  which  they  preached 
at  noon  while  they  rested  on  the  roadside. 
Little  did  the  traveling  theological  class 
dream  how  in  after  years  this  method  of  way- 
side  instruction  would  be  reproduced  in  a 
distant  land.  Often  in  the  life  of  James  Wil¬ 
liam  Lambuth  did  he  gather  his  Chinese  help¬ 
ers  about  him  in  the  shade  of  some  bamboo 
grove  or  on  the  grassy  bank  of  a  canal  and 
teach  them  the  deep  things  of  God. 

Young  Lambuth  served  circuits  in  Ala¬ 
bama,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and,  acquiring 
both  the  French  and  Indian  languages, 
preached  in  them  with  considerable  fluency. 
While  laboring  in  Louisiana  the  conversion 
of  a  young  Indian  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  him.  The  Indian  was  convicted  of  sin 
under  his  sermon,  and  came  asking  what  he 
must  do  to  obtain  peace.  He  was  told  to  go 
to  the  grove,  pray,  and  give  his  whole  heart  to 
God.  The  following  morning  he  returned  in 
great  distress,  and  said :  “Me  give  dog,  me 
give  blanket,  me  give  gun ;  but  me  get  no 


6 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


peace.  What  shall  Indian  do?”  The  preach¬ 
er  replied:  “Go  back,  give. all  these  to'  God, 
and  then  give  him  yourself.”  He  went  to  the 
grove  at  once  to  pray,  and  in  a  short  time  re¬ 
turned  with  a  beaming  face,  exclaiming:  “Me 
so  happy !  Great  Spirit  bless  me  !  Me  happy, 
so  happy!”  The  young  missionary  rejoiced 
with  him,  and  thanked  God  for  the  opportu¬ 
nity  of  pointing  a  child  of  the  forest  to  Christ. 


Methodism  in  Mobile. 

While  John  R.  Lambuth  did  valuable 
work  in  other  portions  of  the  Mississippi 
Conference,  it  was  with  the  city  of  Mobile, 
Ala.,  that  his  life  and  labors  were  most  closely 
identified.  In  1826-27  he  was  appointed  to 
the  Mobile  Mission,  where  he  organized  and 
built  the  first  Methodist  Church  in  that  city. 
Beginning  without  a  member,  after  two  years 
of  faithful  effort  a  commodious  church  had 
been  built,  and  that  without  the  burden  of  a 
debt,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty  persons  re¬ 
ceived  into  membership.  Bishop  Soule  wrote 
of  him :  “The  prudence,  perseverance,  and  zeal 
of  the  missionary  on  this  station  are  worthy 
of  imitation  and  praise.” 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAM  BUT  H. 


7 


Dedicated  at  Birth. 

At  the  close  of  has  pastorate  in  Mobile 
John  R.  Lambuth  was  married  to  Miss  Nancy 
Kirkpatrick,  and,  locating,  moved  to'  Green 
County,  Ala.,  where  on  March  2,  1830,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  James  William  Lam¬ 
buth,  was  born.  His  father  was  called  home 
from  a  protracted  meeting  in  which  he  was 
assisting,  and,  returning  to  attend  a  mission¬ 
ary  service,  he  made  the  following  statement 
to  the  congregation :  “I  was  called  home  yes¬ 
terday  to  the  birth  of  a  baby  boy.  In  heart¬ 
felt  gratitude  to  God,  I  dedicate  the  child  to 
the  Lord  for  a  foreign  missionary,  and  add  a 
bale  of  cotton  to  send  him  with.” 

With  such  a  dedication,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  he  dates  his  religious  experience  almost 
from  infancy.  Writing  in  his  journal  in  later 
life :  “My  own  dear  father  and  mother  taught 
me  to  lift  my  heart  to  God  in  prayer,  and 
when  five  years  of  age  I  felt  the  blessed  influ¬ 
ences  of  God’s  Holy  Spirit.” 

Sometimes  there  was  an  air  of  seriousness 
beyond  his  years  about  this  blue-eyed  boy ; 
but  his  life  was  a  natural  one  for  all  that,  and 
had  its  alternations  of  light  and  shadow. 
With  a  body  as  lithe  as  a  cat,  and  endowed 
1* 


8 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


with  the  clear  eye  of  a  huntsman,  walking  or 
riding,  fishing  or  hunting  were  equally  at- 
tractive  to  him.  In  boyhood  the  stick  and 
the  sling  were  weapons  offensive  and  defen¬ 
sive,  but  were  succeeded  in  young  manhood 
by  the  shotgun  and  rifle,  which  were  unerr¬ 
ing  in  his  hands.  The  young  hunter  scorned 
to  shoot  a  squirrel  save  through  the  eye,  and 
many  a  buck  and  wild  turkey  were  brought 
down  with  his  trusty  rifle. 

Conversion. 

At  eight  years  of  age  he  was  brought  under 
profound  conviction,  and  united  with  the 
Church,  but  did  not  experience  regeneration. 
His  membership  was  an  outward  help,  but  we 
find  him  constantly  yearning  for  a  deeper 
work  of  grace.  In  1848  he  entered  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Mississippi,  at  Oxford,  and  during 
his  third  year  at  the  university  he  was  happily 
converted  after  twelve  days  and  nights  of  deep 
conviction  and  distress  of  mind.  From  that 
hour  he  determined  to  do  what  he  could  to 
bring  others  to  Christ.  How  faithfully  he  ad¬ 
hered  to'  this  determination  is  evidenced  by 
his  lifelong  devotion  to  soul-saving,  but  noth- 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


9 

in g  short  of  eternity  will  reveal  the  full  re¬ 
sults  of  his  service. 

Graduating  in  1852,  he  returned  home  and 
began  first  the  study  of  medicine  and  then 
that  of  law,  but  was  soon  convinced  that  there 
was  other  work  for  him  to  do.  He  prayed 
earnestly  for  direction,  while  his  friends  urged 
him  to  preach  the  gospel;  but  he  felt  unwor¬ 
thy  to  enter  upon  such  a  holy  calling.  How¬ 
ever,  after  assisting  in  many  religious  meet¬ 
ings  and  being  greatly  blessed,  he  was  in  1853 
given  an  exhorter’s  license,  and  a  few  months 
later  license  to  preach.  His  first  work  was 
among  the  negroes  on  his  father’s  farm,  and 
while  so-  engaged  he  heard  and  responded  to 
the  call  made  by  Bishop  Andrew  for  young 
men  for  China. 

Answering  the  Call. 

Concerning  this  important  step,  William 
Lambuth  writes :  “The  appeal  fired  my  heart 
with  holy  zeal,  and  the  blessed  Spirit  of  God 
stirred  my  soul  within;  and  I  said,  T  will  go 
even  to-  China  to-  preach  the  gospel.’  The 
missionary  hymn  had  often  inspired  me  with 
an  earnest  desire  to  carry  the  blessed  gospel 
of  Christ  to  the  regions  beyond,  and  it  seemed 


IO 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


in  the  providence  of  God  that  the  time  had 
come.  I  talked  with  my  father  about  it,  and 
his  answer  was:  ‘My  son,  you  could  have  no 
greater  field  in  which  to  glorify  God  and  to1  do 
good  to  men  than  in  the  preaching  of  the  gos¬ 
pel,  and  I  freely  give  my  consent  for  you  to  go 
to  China.'  ”  After  making  it  a  subject  of 
prayer,  he  wrote  Bishop  Andrew,  volunteer¬ 
ing  for  service  abroad,  and  was  accepted.  In 
the  fall  of  1853  the  Mississippi  Conference 
met  at  Canton.  He  was  received  into  the 
Conference  on  trial,  and  appointed  mission¬ 
ary  to  China  by  Bishop  Capers,  who  presided. 

On  October  20,  1853,  J-  W.  Lambuth  was 
married  to  Miss  M.  I.  McClellan,  of  Cam¬ 
bridge,  N.  Y.,  and  they,  in  company  with  three 
other  missionary  couples,  after  a  farewell  mis¬ 
sionary  meeting  at  Richmond,  Va.,  repaired 
to  New  York,  whence  they  were  to  take  pas¬ 
sage.  The  ship  Ariel,  a  small  sailing  vessel, 
was  to'  take  the  missionaries  to  China.  There 
were  no'  magnificent  steamships  for  such  dis¬ 
tant  seaports  in  those  days.  They  were  to 
sail  and  drift  sixteen  thousand  miles  down  the 
Atlantic,  across  the  equator,  around  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  around  the  continent  of 
Africa,  up  through  the  Indian  Ocean,  across 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


II 


the  equator  again,  among  the  islands  of  Ma¬ 
laysia,  out  by  the  Philippines,  and  up  through 
the  China  Sea. 

What  sublime  patience  these  early  mission¬ 
aries  had !  Four  months  and  a  half  at  sea, 
amid  calm  and  storm,  with  bad  water,  moldy 
bread,  and  much  of  the  time  spent  in  a  room 
hardly  larger  than  a  piano'  box.  No  com¬ 
plaint,  however,  but  rejoicing  rather  that  they, 
with  the  great  apostle,  were  worthy  “to  go 
far  hence  unto  the  Gentiles.” 

Beginning  the  Work. 

It  was  in  harmony  with  William  Lambuth’s 
life  that  he  should  begin  his  missionary  work 
with  a  severe  scrutiny  of  motive  and  method. 
Heathenism  massed  by  the  archenemy  con¬ 
fronted  him.  He  was  about  to  enter  the 
arena  of  his  life  work.  Like  a  true  soldier,  he 
must  test  his  armor  and  gird  himself  for  the 
battle.  A  few  sentences  from  his  journal  give 
the  trend  of  his  thought :  “Am  I  living  as  a 
child  of  God?  Is  God  much  in  my  thoughts, 
and  does  the  consciousness  of  his  presence  en¬ 
ter  into  my  daily  life,  plans,  and  purposes? 
Do  I  sincerely  pray,  and  is  God’s  holy  will  as 
such  my  law?" 


12 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


The  faith,  courage,  and  patience  of  the  new 
missionaries  were  the  first  qualities  to  be  put 
to'  the  test.  The  Taiping  Rebellion,  which 
had  broken  out  in  1850  in  Kwang-si,  one  of 
the  southwestern  provinces,  had  swept  north¬ 
ward  and  gathered  force  as  it  went,  until  in 
1853  ^ie  city  of  Nanking  was  carried  by 
storm.  This  threw  Shanghai  and  the  sur¬ 
rounding  country  into  a  commotion  and  gave 
opportunity  for  a  lawless  band  of  Cantonese, 
more  than  a  thousand  in  number,  to  seize  and 
occupy  it.  These  men,  called  Hoong-der  (red 
heads)  from  the  color  of  their  turbans,  se¬ 
creted  themselves  near  the  city  wall,  throttled 
the  keepers  of  the  gates  at  the  break  of  day, 
and  dragged  the  prefect  and  the  district  mag¬ 
istrate  from  their  beds  and  murdered  them. 
Many  of  the  inhabitants  were  killed  or  eject¬ 
ed,  and  the  foreigners  and  imperial  soldiers 
outside  the  walls  were  defied  by  the  despera¬ 
does,  who  were  banded  together  for  robbery 
and  pillage. 

Perilous  Times. 

Our  missionary  party  arrived  the  year  after 
the  seizure  of  the  walled  city  and  before  the 
insurgents  had  been  dislodged.  They  found 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


13 


temporary  homes  with  the  missionaries,  the 
Lambuths  living  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  W.  G.  E. 
Cunnyngham,  about  six  hundred  yards  from 
the  city  wall.  So  near  were  they  to  the  bat¬ 
teries  on  either  side  that  a  stray  cannon  ball 
would  not  un  frequently  pass  through  the 
house  or  fall  in  the  yard.  Two  months  after 
reaching  Shanghai,  the  Lambuths  were 
obliged  to  move  out  of  this  house,  which  was 
burned  to  the  ground  shortly  afterwards.  It 
was  unsafe  to  be  in  the  streets,  and  it  was  im¬ 
possible  to  carry  on  the  work  in  the  interior; 
but  the  study  of  the  language  was  vigorous¬ 
ly  pursued  in  the  mornings,  and  the  after¬ 
noons  given  to  visiting  the  sick  and  minister¬ 
ing  to  the  wounded  and  dying. 

This  was  the  day  of  small  things.  Two  na¬ 
tive  Christians  constituted  the  Church,  and 
one  of  these  was  Mr.  Lear,  their  first  preach¬ 
er.  A  union  meeting  of  native  Christians  of 
all  denominations  showed  an  attendance  of 
only  twenty,  and  the  entire  native  Christian 
community  was  not  half  a  hundred.  At  the 
present  writing  there  is  no  church  or  hall  in 
Shanghai  spacious  enough  to  hold  them. 

The  missionary  restlessness  of  the  great 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  characteristic  of 


14 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


William  Lambuth.  Call  it  what  we  may — 
the  pioneer  spirit,  the  deepening  sense  of  ob¬ 
ligation  to  serve  men,  or  the  divine  love  im¬ 
pelling  to  seek  and  save  the  lost — it  con¬ 
stantly  manifested  itself  and  was  irresistible. 
One  day  a  neighboring  villlage  would  be  visit¬ 
ed,  and  the  next  a  half  dozen  country  hamlets, 
and  perhaps  the  day  following  some  walled 
city,  into'  every  nook  and  corner  of  which  the 
missionary  and  his  assistants  penetrated  with 
their  evangel.  They  prayed  as  they  went : 
“Lord,  give  thy  servants  an  abundant  entrance. 
We  believe  thou  wilt  bless  thy  word.”  The 
very  simplicity  of  the  missionary's  faith  made 
it  invincible.  Open  doors  were  constantly 
looked  for  and  constantly  found.  Nor  was  he 
surprised  when  the  Lord  honored  his  faith. 

Embracing  Opportunities. 

A  Chinese  gentleman  who1  lived  on  the  shore 
of  the  Great  Lake  invited  him  to  come  and 
preach  in  his  house.  Early  the  following 
morning,  with  the  promptness  of  a  Havelock, 
he  was  on  his  way,  accompanied  by  Lear. 
They  had  not  gone  far  when  they  met  a  mon¬ 
ster  procession  moving  along  the  bank  of  the 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


*5 


canal.  It  was  the  birthday  of  an  idol.  Here 
was  an  opportunity  not  to  be  lost ;  tracts 
could  be  distributed,  the  Scriptures  sold,  and 
the  gospel  preached.  They  quietly  stepped 
ashore  and  be^an  work.  Mr.  Lambuth  was 

O 

always  careful  not  to  obstruct  a  religious  pro¬ 
cession,  but  their  very  presence  in  this  case 
seemed  to'  anger  the  crowd.  The  two  were 
soon  in  the  midst  of  a  surging  mob.  For  a 
few  minutes  they  were  in  fearful  peril,  but  at 
the  critical  moment  an  adherent  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  thinking  they  were  priests, 
rescued  them  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life.  One 
would  suppose  this  would  have  ended  the  ef¬ 
fort  for  that  day.  Not  so.  Nothing  daunted, 
they  preached  on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd, 
nor  beat  a  retreat  until  again  assaulted,  their 
book  sacks  torn,  and  they  themselves  pelted 
with  bricks  and  mud.  Still  the  day  was  not 
counted  lost.  The  intrepid  missionary  said : 
“In  going  a  little  way  from  the  place  we  found 
our  native  friend  still  with  us.  Glad  of  the 
opportunity,  we  explained  U>  him  the  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  Yasu  Kiau  (Jesus  doctrine) 
and  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  He 
went  on  with  us  some  two  miles  and  heard  us 
preach  again.  We  left  him  rejoicing  and  with 


i6 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


the  promise  that  he  would  come  to1  Shanghai 
to  see  us  immediately." 

Pushing  on  to  the  Great  Lake,  where  Mr. 
Sung  lived,  the  gentleman  who  had  invited 
them,  they  were  met  by  their  host  and  con¬ 
ducted  to  his  house.  Refreshed  with  a  cup  of 
tea,  they  preached  without  loss  of  time  to  a 
great  multitude  of  people  on  the  shore  of  the 
lake  gathered  from  the  adjacent  tea  and  silk 
farms.  The  effort  was  followed  up  by  the  dis¬ 
tribution  of  tracts  to  those  who  could  read. 
On  their  way  home  Lear  had  an  adventure 
with  a  drunken  man,  who  struck  him  in  the 
eye,  breaking  his  spectacles,  and  threatened  to 
throw  him  into  a  pond.  Shaking  him  off, 
they  reached  a  Buddhist  temple  served  by  a 
lone  priest.  “He  went  in,"  writes  Mr.  Lam- 
buth,  “lit  his  candle  for  us,  and  we  sat  with  him 
about  two  hours  telling  him  of  Jesus  and  the 
true  God."  A  picture  for  a  Rembrandt:  the 
candle-lit  shadows  of  Buddhism,  the  sunshine 
of  a  glorified  Christianity. 

Incessant  Effort. 

It  was  constantly  busy  with  such  work  as 
this  that  Dr.  Lambuth  spent  thirty-two  years 
in  active  service  in  China.  While  he  consid- 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


1 7 


ered  the  occupation  of  the  cities  of  great  im¬ 
portance,  and  from  the  first  endeavored  to  in¬ 
trench  the  forces  of  the  mission  in  the  various 
walled  towns  of  the  Kiang-su  Province,  he  did 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  cities  are  fed 
by  the  more  vigorous  life  of  the  rural  dis¬ 
tricts.  Itinerating  tours  alternated  monthly 
with  work  in  Shanghai,  where  in  those  early 
days  we  can  trace  his  footsteps  as  he  goes 
about  doing  good.  He  seems  to  preach  all 
the  time,  pray  all  the  time,  and  visit  all  the 
time.  And  yet  a  heavy  correspondence  and 
the  study  of  the  language  claimed  many  of 
the  early  and  late  hours  of  the  day.  He  had 
much  of  the  system  of  Wesley  and  the  devo¬ 
tional  habits  of  Fletcher.  While  difficulties 
multiplied  on  every  hand,  and  seeming  dis¬ 
couragements  were  enough  to  dismay  the 
stoutest  heart,  he  quietly  pressed  on  with 
faith  in  God  and  in  the  ultimate  success  of  the 
gospel. 

It  hardly  seems  credible  that  one  SO'  busily 
employed  in  travel,  preaching,  and  personal 
work  should  have  had  time  to  devote  to  the 
preparation  of  a  Christian  literature.  Yet  we 
find  him  on  a  committee  of  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  into  the  Shanghai  dialect,  and  en- 


1 8  GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 

gaged  in  the  translation  and  publication  of  a 
large  number  of  hymns,  Wesley's  “Sermons,' ” 
the  Discipline,  Binney’s  “Theological  Com- 
pend,”  Ryle’s  “Notes  on  the  Gospels/’  Rals¬ 
ton’s  “Elements  of  Divinity,”  and  a  number  of 
schoolbooks,  including  a  geography  and  an 
astronomy,  besides  catechisms  and  manuals 
of  various  kinds. 

He  opened  a  boarding  school  for  boys  in 
Shanghai  and  a  number  of  day  schools  at  dif¬ 
ferent  points  in  the  interior.  He  trained  a 
number  of  native  preachers  and  assistants, 
giving  them  systematic  instruction  in  the 
Bible  and  in  the  evidences  of  Christianity. 
Some  of  these  men  have  passed  to  their  re¬ 
ward  after  years  of  faithful  and  devoted  effort, 
while  others  still  cherishing  his  spirit  are  do¬ 
ing  their  best  to  be  true  to  their  trust  which 
came  to  them  in  the  gospel  through  his  hands. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  our  itinerant  work  and  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  a  native  agency  in  the  China  Mission 
were  mostly  due  to  his  patient,  loving  efforts 
during  the  more  than  three  decades  of  labo¬ 
rious  service  in  which  he  was  always  ably  sec¬ 
onded  by  his  gifted  wife. 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAM  BUT  H. 


*9 


Opening  the  Japan  Mission. 

The  following  words  are  found  in  a  letter 
written  in  1885  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Lambuth  to  Dr. 
D.  C.  Kelley,  who  was  Assistant  Secretary 
and  Treasurer  of  the  Board  of  Missions:  “If 
our  Board  opens  a  mission  in  Japan,  I  am 
ready  to  go  there  and  help  in  that  work.” 
This  sentiment  did  not  express  dissatisfac¬ 
tion  with  the  results  of  the  work  done  in 
China.  It  was  rather  the  expansion  ot  the 
missionary  idea  which  had  grown  out  of  a  life¬ 
long  study  of  the  purpose  of  God  in  the  re¬ 
demption  of  every  nation.  A  study  of  the 
field  in  Japan,  with  almost  daily  contact  with 
either  missionaries  or  natives  from  the  Island 
Empire,  had  deepened  the  conviction  that  the 
hour  had  come  for  our  Church  to'  enter. 

Bishop  IT.  N.  McTyeire,  then  in  charge  of 
the  China  Mission,  in  writing  to  Dr.  Lam¬ 
buth  at  this  time  expressed  himself  as  follows : 
“I  trust  the  Lord’s  providence  directs  in  this 
matter,  and  that  he  is  leading  to  good  and 
even  great  results.  May  your  valuable  life 
long  be  preserved  and  your  strength  be  re¬ 
newed,  and  may  its  labors  be  conserved  in  this 
Japan  field  with  the  best  and  largest  results !” 
The  reply  of  the  simple-hearted  missionary 


20 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


was  characteristic:  “We  thank  you  and  the 
friends  for  this  determination  to  open  a  mis¬ 
sion  in  Japan.  We  shall  go  leaning  on  the 
omnipotent  arm  of  God  and  seeking  in  our 
work  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  his 
blessing.”  In  pursuance  of  the  instructions 
of  the  Bishop,  Dr.  J.  W.  Lambuth  and  Dr.  O. 
A.  Dukes  landed  in  Kobe  in  July,  1886,  fol¬ 
lowed  in  November  by  Dr.  W.  R.  Lambuth. 

Establishing  Headquarters. 

Japan  was  a  new  and  untried  field,  but,  rely¬ 
ing  upon  the  guidance  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
whose  presence  he  had  invoked,  the  founder 
of  the  mission  wisely  settled  upon  Kobe  as 
his  headquarters.  This  growing  city  of  over 
100,000,  upon  a  magnificent  bay  at  the  east¬ 
ern  entrance  of  the  Inland  Sea,  is  the  hinge 
upon  which  both  land  and  sea  travel  turns  in 
all  that  section.  No  better  base  could  have 
been  selected  for  evangelistic  effort.  At  a 
distance  of  only  twenty  miles  the  city  of 
Osaka  can  be  seen  with  more  than  half  a  mil¬ 
lion  people,  its  public  buildings  and  its  factory 
chimneys  gleaming  in  the  evening  sun  until 
it  seems  like  Venice  to  float  on  the  water. 
Beyond  Osaka,  some  fifty  miles  by  rail,  is 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAM  BUT  H. 


21 


Kioto,  the  western  capital  of  Japan,  with  its 
three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  its  nu¬ 
merous  temples,  its  potteries,  and  especially 
its  schools.  Thus  within  seventy-five  miles 
we  have  the  principal  commercial,  manufac¬ 
turing,  and  educational  centers  of  Japan, 
while  along  the  Inland  Sea  and  in  the  interior 
is  a  population  of  15,000,000  souls  within  al¬ 
most  twenty-four  hours’  reach  by  boat  or  rail. 

Founder  and  Father  of  the  Mission. 

Dr.  J.  C.  C.  Newton,  in  writing  about  the 
early  days  of  the  mission,  speaks  in  the  follow¬ 
ing  terms  of  J.  W.  Lambuth  and  the  first  mis¬ 
sionaries  :  “We  know  how  their  hearts  burned 
with  the  fires  of  Christ’s  love  as  they  quickly 
saw  stretching  out  far  and  wide  the  fields 
white  for  the  harvest ;  and  we  know,  too,  how 
the  heart  of  the  old  warrior  was  stirred  with 
an  ardor  equal  to  that  of  the  two  younger 
men.  With  a  rapidity  that  astonished  other 
missionaries  in  Japan  he  went  through  all  the 
coasts  of  the  Inland  Sea,  preaching  and  talk¬ 
ing  to  the  people.  In  fact,  there  is  scarcely  a 
point  in  our  whole  field,  from  Kobe  to  Oita, 
that  was  not  either  opened  by  him  or  with 
which  his  labors  are  not  connected.  Of  the 


22 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


Kobe  Church,  which  for  so  long  a  time  wor¬ 
shiped  in  his  house,  he  is  especially  to  he 
named  as  the  founder  and  father. 

“His  last  trip  into  the  interior  was  to  Ta- 
dotsu.  By  invitation  of  Rev.  C.  B.  Moseley, 
presiding  elder  of  that  district,  he  preached 
and  dedicated  the  new  house  of  worship.  It 
was  fitting  that  he  should  dedicate  the  house, 
for  he  opened  the  work  there  and  ever 
watched  the  tender  vine  planted  in  that  seat 
of  idolatry.  His  constant  interest  in  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  Japanese  people  and  his  untiring 
labor  for  their  salvation  are  known  and  read 
of  all.  There  is  no  desire  to  forget  the  splen¬ 
did  work  of  others,  but  this  now  sainted  man 
of  God  is  the  father  of  our  work,  and  alike  by 
our  Japanese  Christians  and  by  the  mission¬ 
aries  he  will  ever  be  named  our  father/’ 

Unreserved  Consecration. 

In  a  memorial  service  held  immediately 
after  his  death,  Dr.  Newton  brought  out  sev¬ 
eral  characteristics  which  are  true  of  his  life 
and  ministry : 

“First,  one  of  the  strong  characteristics 
of  his  whole  career,  and  also  the  secret 
of  his  usefulness,  was  his  unreserved  conse- 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAM  BUT  H. 


23 


cration  to  the  one  thing-.  When  as  a  young 
man  just  from  college  he  heard  the  call 
of  God  to  go  preach  the  gospel  in  the  far- 
off  lands,  he  said :  ‘Here  am  I ;  send  me/ 
There  was  then  and  there  a  complete  giving 
up  of  everything  to  that  one  thing.  Kin¬ 
dred,  parents,  the  prospect  of  a  successful 
career  in  his  native  State — all  were  laid  for¬ 
ever  on  the  altar.  Henceforth  he  cared  for 
nothing,  sought  for  nothing,  except  as  it 
stood  related  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
to  the  heathen.  Social  amenities,  hospitality 
(this  abounded  always),  were  all  consecrated 
to  the  one  great  end  in  the  name  of  Christ. 
Nor  was  he  to  be  a  missionary  for  a  limited 
time — five  or  six  years — and  then  to  return. 
Nay,  he  was  a  missionary  for  life.  Some  of  us 
had  been  thinking  he  ought  to  go  to  America, 
but  he  has  fallen  at  his  post,  just  where  he 
wanted  to  finish  his  course;  and  with  joy,  too'. 
He  has  given  us  an  example  of  lifelong,  entire 
consecration  to  the  one  thing  to  which  God 
had  called  him. 

Decision  of  Character. 

“Secondly,  there  was  a  quiet,  gentlemanly 
decision  of  character  which  it  is  well  for  us  to 


24 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


ponder.  His  indomitable  will  stands  out  as  an 
example  worthy  of  all  imitation  as  it  was  il¬ 
lustrated  during  the  late  dreadful  Civil  War. 
During  those  long  years  of  fratricidal  con¬ 
flict,  cut  off  from  the  support  and  almost 
from  all  communication  from  the  home 
Church,  he  remained  at  his  post  through  it  all 
and  carried  on  his  missionary  work.  I  trust 
that  I  may  be  pardoned  for  saying  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  living  this :  When  all  the  annals  of 
missionary  labor  shall  have  been  written  up, 
no1  page  of  those  annals  will  shine  brighter 
than  the  one  that  records  the  unquenchable 
devotion  and  heroic  self-sacrifice  of  Dr.  Lam- 
buth  and  of  his  equally  heroic  wife.  In  the 
presence  of  difficulties  that  made  other  stout 
hearts  fail,  his  never  did. 

Exalted  Standard  of  Life. 

“Thirdly,  he  maintained  an  exalted  stand¬ 
ard  of  Christian  life,  illustrating  in  his  own 
personal  life  the  principles  of  the  gospel  which 
he  preached  to  others.  Did  he  preach  repent¬ 
ance?  He  himself  had  repented  and  re¬ 
nounced  every  form  of  sin  and  needless 
fleshly  indulgence.  Faith  in  Christ  as  the 
Lamb  of  God,  the  precious  Blood  that 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


25 

cleanseth  from  all  sin — this  he  constantly 
preached ;  and  his  own  faith  was  a  living  ev¬ 
eryday  reality.  Did  he  preach  the  office  and 
work  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  With  him  it  was 
not  a  mere  theory.  He  had  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit.  Did  he  exhort  the  native  Chris¬ 
tians  unto  love  supreme  toward  God,  and  to¬ 
ward  each  other  brotherly  love  ?  He  him¬ 
self  was  an  example  of  consecrated  and  un¬ 
selfish  love. 

“And  here  is  the  secret  of  that  profound  re¬ 
spect  which  the  people  of  China  and  Japan 
have  for  him.  People  can  read  the  inner  heart 
of  their  spiritual  teachers.  This  is  true  ev¬ 
erywhere,  and  especially  so  in  the  East. 
They  saw  in  him  the  actual  experience  and 
power  of  a  redeemed  man.  The  deep  love  of 
Christ  for  their  souls — the  Christ  they  had 
not  seen — they  saw  illustrated,  demonstrated 
in  Christ’s  messenger  whom  they  had  seen. 
The  purity  of  his  thoughts,  the  singleness  of 
his  aim,  took  hold  upon  their  respect  and  con¬ 
fidence.  This  is  a  matter  most  important  to 
us.  The  power  and  holiness  of  the  heart  sanc¬ 
tified  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  exalted  stand¬ 
ard  of  his  life,  the  absolute  certainty  and  bold¬ 
ness  with  which  he  preached  a  present  and 


26 


GREAT  MISSIONARIES. 


full  salvation  from  all  the  sin  of  the  spirit  and 
filthiness  of  the  flesh — this  is  the  model  for 
us.” 

It  was  in  the  month  of  April,  when  the  beau¬ 
tiful  Japanese  maples  begin  to  leaf,  that  Dr. 
Lambuth  made  his  last  trip  into  the  interior. 
A  little  group  of  Japanese  Christians  in  the 
city  of  Tadotsu,  on  the  southern  shore  of  the 
Inland  Sea,  had  been  for  months  earnestly 
studying  the  Word  of  God,  and  had  resolved 
to  build  a  church  in  which  they  might  wor¬ 
ship  and  the  gospel  be  preached.  They  were 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  greatest  hea¬ 
then  shrine  in  all  Japan,  for  do  not  thousands 
of  pilgrims  come  annually  by  sea  and  land  to 
bow  down  before  Kompira,  whose  fame  is 
known  to  every  sailor  and  whose  virtues  have 
penetrated  every  home?  Despite  all  this,  the 
little  band  had  never  lost  heart.  The  men 
had  given  their  ancient  armor  and  the  women 
their  silken  robes  that  the  proceeds  of  sale 
might  be  devoted  to1  the  erection  of  a  Chris¬ 
tian  temple,  and  the  oldest  member  of  the 
mission — their  spiritual  father — was  invited 
to  dedicate  it  to  the  Lord. 

It  was  his  last  work.  He  caught  a  severe 
cold  from  sleeping  on  the  floor,  and  returned 


JAMES  WILLIAM  LAMBUTH. 


27 


to  Kobe  with  it  rapidly  deepening  into  pneu¬ 
monia.  There  was  much  pain,  but  no  com¬ 
plaint.  After  a  very  trying  night,  he  greeted 
Rev.  W.  E.  Towson  with  the  words:  “God 
has  been  so  good  to  me.”  Later  on  through 
the  same  brother  missionary  he  transmitted 
these  words  to  the  native  Church :  “Tell  them 
to  be  faithful — faithful  to  the  end."  To  the 
Church  at  home  he  sent  the  message:  “Tell 
them  I  died  at  my  post.  We  have  a  great 
work  to  do  ;  tell  them  to  send  more  men." 

In  the  light  of  a  life  wholly  devoted  to  the 
service  of  his  Master,  with  what  can  we  close 
this  sketch  more  appropriately  than  the 
words  of  Dr.  S.  H.  Wainright,  who,  in  sum¬ 
ming  up  the  characteristics  of  this  truly  apos¬ 
tolic  missionary,  said:  “He  was  persistent  in 
work,  unceasing  in  prayer;  always  busy,  al¬ 
ways  praying,  always  talking  to  men  of  God, 
always  talking  of  God  to  men?” 


